[nmglug] advice on purchasing a new laptop

[s at mnoble.net]

On Wed, May 15, 2013 at 02:20:53PM -0600, Will Pearson wrote:
> Try to get an nvidia chipset in it. ATI's graphics drivers in Linux are
> horrible.

If you're planning to avoid non-free drivers, this is actually
something that's changed in the last few years. The free software radeon
driver doesn't (it never did actually) do 3D without a non-free blob.
And the nouveau driver is supposedly progressing quickly. So if faced
with an ATI vs Nvidia choice, Nv is probably the better choice
especially if you'll be using it for a while. 
Of course I haven't actually used either one in years :| The intel video
being ftw. (Though always paired with non-free wifi cards, but that's
usually correctable.)

> I'm uncertain how the touch screen of an ultrabook is managed
> in Linux, so I cannot help you there.

I'm betting it xorg just picks it up as an hid input device.

> On 5/15/2013 1:35 PM, Mark Galassi wrote:
> >
> > I might want to buy a laptop in a hurry from the local Best Buy or
> > Office Depot or Staples.  It would be an inexpensive ultrabook and I
> > would install the GNU/Linux operating system on it.
> >
> > Does anyone have advice on:
> >
> > 1. what hardware should I look at or avoid?

Won't help if you really need current specs, or if you need to buy at a
retailer, but:
When coreboot got support for the thinkpad x60 and t60 (and now the x201
is nearly ready) I got pretty excited about the possibility of a zero
non-free blobs machine. If you've got time to ebay around these old
machines make me quite happy and they're super cheap. Though the ram
limitations (3GB) are a pain, and of course there are _still_ non-free
blobs lurking around. (A microcontroller that runs the battery/fan et
al, plus whatever's in the components, (like disk firmware)

> > 2. any issues installing a GNU/Linux distribution (debian or ubuntu)
> > these days?  I keep hearing about "bricking" due to UEFI, but I have not
> > researched it yet.

Definately not an issue with coreboot supported machines, (or any other
7 year old machine for that matter :)

-- 
sam